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Veronique Champion
Veronique Champion, also known as Renard, is a French Directorate-General of External Security (DGSE) assassin who initially targets Shane Schofield, but later becomes his ally and second love-interest. History Early History During her childhood, Veronique Champion often spent time with her cousin Luc. In her adult life, Champion joined the Directorate-General of External Security, operating for the Directorate of Intelligence division. During her career she married one of her superiors. Champion's focus for many years was monitoring Islamic extremist groups in Middle Eastern countries, taking particular interest in their growing use of women. She made contact with a Yemeni woman working for one of these groups, Hannah Fatah, and Champion convinced her to provide valuable intelligence on local extremist groups. For three years, Fatah presented Champion with intel that helped to prevent terrorist attacks, including two that would have impacted Paris. One day, Fatah contacted Champion and informed her that, in addition to being pregnant, she may have been discovered leaking information by her superiors, and asked Champion to bring her in for her protection. Champion soon had Fatah brought inside DGSE headquarters, however, when they reached the debriefing room, Fatah detonated a bomb surgically implanted in her uterus with a false fetus designed to fool the metal detectors. The explosion killed several high-ranking DGSE members, including Champion's husband, and injured Champion herself. Champion blamed herself for failing to realise that Fatah had been using her for so long, and came to believe it was because she had been too empathetic. Wanting to avoid such emotions again, Champion decided to become an assassin for the DGSE's Action Division. Within a month of transferring, she made her first kill, and soon recieved the call-sign Renard. Champion would go on to assassinate twelve more people for the DGSE, and had tally marks tattooed on her right wrist to indicate her number of kills. In late 2010 to early 2011, Champion was present at intelligence debriefings where the mysterious militia group calling itself the Army of Thieves were brought up. Some time after the French government declared Shane Schofield an enemy of France for his acts against them, Champion asked to personally follow up on his bounty, believing he may have been responsible for Luc's death during the Wilkes Ice Station incident. Champion was provided with a First Parachute Regiment unit to assist her in the mission, and spent the next month researching her target, discovering Schofield's history with his father and the traumatic effect his girlfriend's murder had had on him. Because Schofield had been assigned to a testing team in the Arctic in an attempt to keep him out of harm's way, Champion and her team had to use a submarine to transport themselves up to the Arctic as they attempted to track him. Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves While their submarine traversed the waters beneath the ice, Champion and her team eventually located Schofield's testing team towards the end of his tenure in the Arctic. When they tracked him to an open lead in the ice, Champion led a few submersibles to breach the surface and attack, however, they had barely surfaced when they came under attack from several aircraft that were already assailing Schofield's team. Champion, Baba and Dubois managed to avoid one of the Cobra's gunfire long enough for Schofield to hit it with a grenade, before they were rescued by their targets. After they had found refuge in an old Soviet research facility on an islet near a larger research island, Champion took down a deranged polar bear charging at them. She then aimed her weapon at Schofield and introduced herself before asking what was going on. After confirming Schofield's query as to whether she was related to Luc, Champion asked if Schofield had killed him, to which the Marine replied that he had not. Champion was surprised to realise that Schofield was telling the truth, before the Marne added that he had rescued her and her people in the hopes of working together to prevent the Army of Thieves from igniting an atmospheric weapon which would also impact France. Champion agreed to ally with Schofield, but pointed out that regardless of the truth of Schofield's innocence regarding Luc's death, she would still attempt to assassinate him for France when they were done. As the rag-tag team questioned the Russian scientist Vasily Ivanov on the Tesla weapon, they came up with a plan to steal the crucial red uranium spheres to keep them from being able to ignite the atmosphere. Soon, however, the group is forced to make a run through Dragon Island. When Champion was briefly cut off from the others, Schofield prepared to go back and help her, regardless of her intent to kill him later, however she employed her Magneteux to escape before he could do anything, impressing Schofield. As they continued through the islets, Champion found herself quietly impressed with Schofield's unorthodox methods in getting them through danger. Once they reached a cable car that would take them onto the island itself, Champion listened in to Schofield's plan to retrieve the spheres before the Lord of Anarchy spoke to those wearing the Army's ear-pieces, including Champion. The Lord of Anarchy told Schofield that he couldn't trust Champion, and he briefly taunted her on Fatah's betrayal and how Champion was an example of people become when they lose everything. There was little time to digest the Lord of Anarchy's words before the cable car arrived on the island, and Champion quickly moved to help distract the Army's forces as Schofield, Mother and Baba used created a crude bridge so that Schofield could reach the control tower's spire and steal the spheres. Once the Marine had the spheres, the group attempted to flee onboard an Antonov that Ivanov had procured, only for the plane to be damaged. Though the Lord of Anarchy fired a missile with a red uranium sphere loaded into it, it failed to ignite properly. In the ensuing battle for their spheres, Champion attempted to help fight off their assailants, however she was shot by a berserker who had infiltrated the cockpit, and Schofield helped her try and escape the carnage. Champion teetered on the edge of consciousness as the plane reached the island's waterfall and fell into the sea, but luckily for her Schofield managed to keep her out of danger as he helped them escape the Army berserkers and the sinking plane. When Champion regained consciousness some time later, she was surprised that Schofield had rescued her despite her stated intent to kill him. Champion rebuffed Schofield's belief that she was obviously a good person and not a cold-hearted killer, claiming that that was no longer who she was. As Schofield attempted to find a way back onto the island, Champion told Schofield what led her to become an assassin, in exchange for him answering her curiosity regarding how he had come to cope with Gant's death. As they found themselves bonding over sharing their stories, Schofield's DIA contact sent them intel that revealed the Lord of Anarchy was in reality a CIA agent named Marius Calderon, who had created the Army of Thieves in a decades-long plan to destroy China. The pair soon found an old whaling village they could access the island from, but while Schofield attempted to enact a plan to get them past a team of sentries, Champion was left on her own as Schofield was captured by Typhon. Moments after Schofield was taken away, however, Champion spotted Zack's modified bomb-disposal robot Bertie, and gave the experimental robot her weapons to pass on to Schofield in order to help him escape. After helping distract the remaining sentries with smoke grenades, Champion was forced to remain in the village due to her injuries while Bertie went on. While Schofield and the remaining team members were dealing with Calderon's final attempts to ignite the atmosphere, Champion found herself being harassed by several of the deranged polar bears. When Schofield radioed his team to make sure they were safe, Champion told him she was still in the village but needed help, as she was down to her last few rounds. Luckily Schofield soon arrived and finished the last polar bear, informing Champion that a Russian nuke had been fired at Dragon Island. After they had retrieved Zack and Emma, their escape was thwarted by the remaining Thieves, forcing the group to head to a hidden bunker. As Schofield prepared to zipline down the cable car cable with Champion, the French assassin surprised him with a kiss, confessing she had never met a man like him before. They soon reached the bunker, sealing themselves inside seconds before the missile struck the island. When they were rescued a few days later, medics saw to Champion's wounds, and was soon returned to France. In their debriefings, Champion and Baba noted Schofield's actions had helped save France from annihilation, convincing the French government to drop the Marine's bounty. Five months after the crisis, Champion and Baba made an appearance at the White House while the American were congratulated for their efforts, bringing news that Schofield's bounty had been canceled. During the dinner, Champion conversed with the other survivors, sharing glances with Schofield. After Mother told Schofield and his therapist that Champion's call-sign was the French word for "Fox" (which had been the call-sign of Gant), the two women convinced him to ask Champion out. The pair proceeded to a late-night coffee shop where they chatted long into the night. Personality Having believed that she had been too trusting, allowing an informant to trick her, Champion has since wanted nothing more than to cut herself off entirely from feeling emotions such as empathy. While most would see Champion exactly as she wants them to, as a cold and unemphatic assassin, a few do realise that this is not her true nature. Indeed, she has a strong sense of justice, wanting revenge for her cousin's death when she believed the scientist had been unjustly murdered by Schofield. Champion is also good at reading people, which allows her to realise Schofield was telling the truth about not killing Luc. However, her sense of patriotism is strong enough that she is somewhat willing to ignore her mistaken belief and still act in service of her country. Relationships Veronique's Husband Little of Champion's relationship with her deceased husband is known. However, they were in love enough that she was distraught and traumatised enough to want to avoid feeling emotions such as love again, since Champion blamed herself for his death simply because she had trusted the wrong person. Shane "Scarecrow" Schofield The French assassin initially had no favour for Schofield due to her mistaken belief that he had killed her cousin. Even after the misunderstanding was cleared up, Champion noted that she would still kill him regardless. However, during the group's run through Dragon Island, Champion finds herself impressed with Schofield's unorthodox methods, and was surprised that he had even rescued her from the Army of Thieves despite her intention to kill him. She begins to open up to him and reveals her background, albeit in exchange for hearing how he coped with his girlfriend's brutal murder, and so the pair gradually grow closer. In the aftermath they go on a date. While not much is mentioned, it did seem to go rather well with Schofield and Veronique talking late into the night. Trivia . Category:French Characters Category:Characters Category:Scarecrow Characters Category:Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves Category:Protagonists